


the world will never take my heart

by gracedbybattle



Series: new beginnings [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence - Order 66, Clone Wars, Established Relationship, F/M, Female Obi-Wan Kenobi, Fives lives, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25002592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracedbybattle/pseuds/gracedbybattle
Summary: The ending of the Clone Wars is just as full of betrayal as the way it began.Honestly, Anakin shouldn’t even be surprised.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: new beginnings [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810051
Comments: 6
Kudos: 318





	the world will never take my heart

If the war has been an unprecedented, unpredictable disaster since Geonosis, then the way it ends is very fitting. 

Personally, Anakin could have done with the final twist, a gut wrenching betrayal from someone who was once both friend and mentor. This is exactly the kind of stab-in-the-back, deep-seeded conspiracy that he expects to find on the Senate floor, no doubt.

Just not from Chancellor Palpatine. 

Standing in his office for the final confrontation with the best of Torrent Company at their back, Anakin could feel Rex freeze at his side when the Chancellor had admitted to the mastermind, no doubt remembering all the brothers he’d lost to a manufactured war.

The amount of blood that has been spilled over this conflict is incalculable. The number of lives lost, the planets scorched, the sheer destruction of the Clone Wars can never be accounted for. The reveal that the leader of the Republic has orchestrated the entire war is too large a scandal to wrap his mind around. And yet, it’s true. He’d heard it from the man himself 

Palpatine’s reveal, cruel beyond measure in it’s last moments, had been less grieved admittance and more gloating over his perceived accomplishments. It was a sickening display that only cemented his own declaration to the Dark Side. That much evil, that much power, had needed to be quelled. 

In the final moments, Anakin made a choice to save his men and the galaxy from an unspeakable evil. He made the striking blow in the Light, motivated by those he loves rather than hate for an old man in a black robe. There is no way to atone for the sins that the Sith have committed, but the death of their religion is a start. 

He cut this Sith’s head off to make sure of it. He stares at his ‘saber in his hand, the blue light reflecting off the dead man’s - _Sith, Palpatine was a Sith all along_ \- head. 

“ _Demagolka_ ,” Rex curses out loud, picking himself up from the floor where the Sith tossed him in the final moments. His armor is still smoking slightly, a good portion of white and blue paldron warped black from the lightning blast. 

“I don’t think he’ll get up from that,” Anakin says, gesturing at the body and winces as the crack in his voice. 

He glances away from the scene in front him and around the room for the rest of his troops. They’d needed the combined power of Fives, Echo, Jesse, himself and Rex to even give them a kriffing chance against a Sith-damned Lord. 

Even then it almost hadn’t been enough, had Anakin not been here. It would have been helpful if they’d had another Jedi in their ranks, but the escalation of the Outer Rim sieges - Obi-Wan’s recent absence hadn’t helped - and the urgency of the matter required an immediate response. 

Anakin and the 501st had been the closest, rendezvousing for supplies on Coruscant before they were set to return to pick up Ahsoka and the 212th on Mandalore, when the orders came down to take the Chancellor into custody. 

Another Jedi would’ve helped, but it wouldn’t have changed the final outcome. Prophecy or no prophecy, Anakin could have rained hellfire from the skies to protect his men.

“Rex, how’s everyone else?” 

“All good, sir,” his captain coughs back. He can see Fives in the corner, speaking to Echo in a low voice. 

The other ARC obviously has a concussion, staring wide into the distance and nodding faintly along to what his brother is saying. He doesn’t have eyes on Jesse, but Rex has a comm open between the four of them and the Captain waves out a hand out the hall, a non-verbal sign that clearly means ‘Kix.’ 

Kix had been adamant to join them, reluctant to let any of them, Jesse in particular, march into sure danger without being by their side. But Anakin had reasoned that they needed their medic safe, to be not injured himself, and Rex had agreed. So he’d waited below. Presumably, Jesse is well enough and has left to fetch him.

His comm chimes as the same time that Rex starts to say something else, picking across the wreckage of the remains of the High Chancellor’s office to stand by him. Immediately, a warmth spreads through his chest at the comm’s frequency. There can only be one person at the other end - well, maybe two - and it’s the one person he wants to talk to right now. 

He clicks the comm on with a small smile. “Hey master.”

“Anakin!” Obi-Wan’s worried voice is a few octaves higher than its usual calming tone and he can only imagine how put out she was that she wasn’t allowed to accompany him to arrest the Chancellor. He wonders who drew that short straw. Very few can withstand his old Master’s withering glare when she’s unhappy. Especially when she’s being sidelined. The General for the 212th battalion has been confined to quarters since Jinn’s birth, a leave of absence demanded by the medics and Council, not to mention her long-suffering and protective husband.

Truth be told, Anakin is just relieved that Cody had been placed on leave with her to make sure she didn’t steal a speeder and follow him, headless of medical warnings and common sense alike. She’s done more under less circumstances. 

“Is the Chancellor in custody? Where’s Captain Rex?” she asks, voice more worried than he can ever remember hearing. 

“We’re okay,” he says, “All of us. Just a little beat up.” And then without much introduction, because there is no way to break this gently, “The Chancellor was a Sith Lord.”

Having a ‘bad feeling’ is a bit different from having your worst fears confirmed, but to his master’s credit, she barely even sounds surprised. Just a long, sad exhale.

They had suspected as much before the siege of Mandalore began, and that suspicion was only bolstered by Maul’s confession to Ahoska before his capture. Between that and Fives insistence on a plot at the highest level after discovering the inhibitor chips on Kamino, all the pieces fell together. 

He wonders how she’ll react to being told that what the Sith had wanted, really wanted besides Anakin, was Obi-Wan’s newborn son. A pure soul, strong in the Light that Palpatine could have molded into his own successor.

Jinn Kenobi’s force sensitivity is a highly guarded secret that only select members of the GAR and Jedi Council are privy to. Only someone higher in the system could have known. 

Someone like the Chancellor. 

He shudders at the thought of that much dark - of that much evil - touching Jinn, his nephew in all but blood. The part of his soul connected to Obi-Wan through the Force aches to have his master here for comfort and the security she always brings, and yet, he’s glad she and Jinn are physically as far away as possible. 

Personally, he thinks Cody might’ve killed Palpatine himself if the man had put a hand on his child. If they’d just had a team of angry Mandalorian _buirs_ , they might not have needed Anakin at all to vanquish the Sith. Because Anakin? Has nothing on Cody when something threatens his child. 

“We suspected as much,” she admits, voice sorrowful and sad. “I’m so sorry, Anakin.”

“Sorry?” he says because he’s genuinely dumbfounded. The war is over and the Sith are dead. What could Obi-Wan be sorry for?

She sighs again, regretful. “I know the Chancellor was close to you. I should have seen this coming. I wish I could have spared you this.”

He blinks. “But he was a Sith.”

“A Jedi should mourn all life, no matter how lost,” she intones at him, like they’re back in the temple in their old shared quarters. Like he’s nine years old and Obi-Wan is a newly minted master, fumbling her way through his early lessons and reciting old mantras to fill the silence. Obi-Wan and Palpatine have never been fond of one another, but they've also never been outright hostile, if only for Anakin's sake.

“He knew about Jinn,” he blurts before he can stop himself. “He knew everything.” Dead or no, Obi-Wan deserves to know as well, how deep the betrayal ran. A sharp exhale over the comm tells him she wasn’t expecting that. For a moment there is nothing but silence over the connection. 

“That _shabuir_ ,” she whispers, barely concealed anger in her voice. 

He wonders if Cody was close enough to hear, wonders what the commander will do when Obi-Wan tells him. He might raze the Senate to the ground. He could definitely talk Rex into helping him. After the Chancellor’s failed attempt to incriminate and assassinate Fives over the inhibitor chips, he knows his captain would be more than happy to blast through a few dignitaries.

“He’s dead, master,” he says and saying the words finally make them real. A weight lights off his chest, like a physical toil is gone. He can hear the exhaustion in his own voice and wonders if Obi-Wan can too. Silence again and he knows his master is choosing her next words carefully. 

“Anakin,” she says and her voice is so heavy with concern that he could almost cry. Soft, like she thinks the words could break him. The Sith couldn’t, all their evil couldn’t bring him to his knees. But Obi-Wan’s kindness might. “Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine,” he says because she knows she worries about him and right now, he doesn’t want her to. Not about him. “Really.”

Once, Obi-Wan’s care and frequent mothering was something he resented. She’d been a reflection of the kindness and nurturing nature of his mother, and in his pain, he’d rejected it. Growing older, and wiser, has allowed him to see his master’s affection for what it truly is - the truest and purest form of love. The war, and little Jinn Kenobi, have shown him what Obi-Wan was trying so hard for years. That a Jedi’s strength is in their passion for love, not their fear of loss. 

“So, Palaptine was Sidious after all?” she says, circling back because even if Obi-Wan's first concern is her former padawan, she’s still a General of the Republic. “Maul was right.”

“Yes,” he says because there is no room for interpretation here.

She hums and he knows she’s thinking about Dooku, all those years ago on Geonosis. She also knows the plan was to arrest the Chancellor, not kill him. They suspected a Sith was in play, but the plan had never changed. “What happened, Anakin?”

Anakin breathes in deeply. _She won’t condemn you. She understands._

“He admitted to everything. In front of all of us. Rex, Jesse, Echo, Fives. His masterplot for the clones, for the war. He wanted me to join him.”

Another deep breath. 

“He was going to kill Rex, if I didn’t. I refused and he was going to kill them all. I had to.” He explains the crux of the plot, how Palpatine - Sidious - had described how he would have used the clones chips to turn them on their Jedi brethren, to kill them. How he would have destroyed the entire Order, the Republic, and pulled his own Empire from its ashes.

He omits other parts of the plan. Namely, what Palpatine was going to do to Jinn once he got a hold of him. How he would have disposed of his parents, what he would have done to them while they were still alive, the parts he would make Anakin watch. 

He isn’t ready to think about that yet. 

There’s more than enough to justify Sidious’ death. Anakin doesn’t worry about that. As a Jedi, it’s practically their job to eradicate the Sith from existence, even if he was the Chancellor. 

He was proven corrupt, assuming emergency power and refusing to relinquish it, staying on well past to term to the disgruntlement of many systems. And yet, there’s silence on the end of the comm as he finishes and for a terrible moment, he dispares over what Obi-Wan thinks of him. 

“I know,” she says, as though she can sense his trepidation in the silence and his heart settles at her reassurance. It doesn’t matter how many times he hears it, knowing his master understands if a relief. Of all the Jedi, of all the masters and the knights, she alone knows Anakin’s past, his pain, and his soul.

And she has Cody and Jinn. Of anyone, she would understand the desire to protect those she loves. 

“I know you did the right thing. He was a monster, and your actions were just.” He can feel her smile, even over the distance, like the sun on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you, Anakin.”

“Skywalker?” a rougher voice echoes over the comm and he instantly recognizes Obi-Wan’s husband. Marshal Commander Cody of the 212th sounds about as pleased as his general at being kept away from the action. He’s been curled tight as a viper since being grounded while Ahsoka led the 212th to liberate Mandalore and capture Maul. Their success has tempered the Commander’s mood, but only incrementally. 

“Cody!” Rex calls before Anakin can respond, crowding into his General’s space. 

He scrambles over a large piece of blasted plaster in his haste, cursing the Sith and Palpatine under his breath as he goes. He grasps onto Anakin’s shoulder and Anakin holds right back, acutely aware of the tremors working through Rex’s frame, though is captain is standing steadily enough on his own power. Anakin hopes that's just crashing adrenaline and not the aftershocks of being struck with Sith lightning, but he doubts it. They’re never that lucky. 

“Rex,” Cody says back, and he sounds relieved. “Rex, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” his captain says, which is a bald-faced lie. 

Rex is leaning a heavily into Anakin, his strength clearly drained. He’s not putting much weight on his right leg, Anakin notices. Between looking like a half burnt and the increasing tremors, Anakin is putting him higher on the triage list for Kix. He infuses a bit of Force energy into his hand, pushing it through the point of contact on his arm and Rex seems to breathe a little easier. It’s not much, but it’s something.

“‘Fine’ as in you’re okay or ‘fine’ as in you just made it out alive?” Cody asks, blunt as ever. “Because you sound like shit.” 

Rex laughs at that, and it’s a loud and happy sound, something so unexpected that Anakin nearly drops the hold he has on him. The look on his captain’s face is fond, staring at the communicator as though he can see his older brother through it. 

He knows that while all the clones consider themselves brothers, some are closer than others. And Rex and Cody’s relationship is special. They consider each other family in the closest sense, just as much as Anakin and Obi-Wan do. 

“A little worse for wear,” Rex admits. “But we’re all okay, Codes.” 

Anakin can almost feel the Cody softening on the other end of the line at the nickname. He imagines that Obi-Wan is smiling beside him, a matching hand on his shoulder, Jinn probably on her other arm. Their small family is slowly growing, and his heart is with them. 

He mentally notes to comm Padme next. At least he knows she’s safe at their apartment, and far away from manipulating Sith users.The desire to be with them, all of them, suddenly hit him, desperately.

“How’s Jinn?” he can’t help but ask, thoughts still lingering on his nephew. Imagines his big blue eyes and dark curls, so much a mirror of his mother and father. Obi-Wan and Cody’s son absolutely radiates in the Force, a bright beacon of light that everyone adores. 

Cody snorts. “Keeping us up all hours of the night.”

“Better get a handle on that, General,” Rex grins at Anakin knowingly. He’s leaning against him more with each passing second but his eyes are alight with mischief. “Cody’s known to turn into a real bastard when he’s losing sleep.”

“Oh, I am aware,” Obi-Wan chuckles, her voice light and warm. The teasing is doing them all good, alleviating the heavy mood in the air. “The war has given me plenty of first hand knowledge of that.”

“I thought that was from sleeping together?” Rex smirks, clearly feeling himself. Anakin can practically feel his own eyes widen. If he ever needed evidence that Rex is a fearless man, he’s got proof now. Maybe he does have a concussion. “You know, before the baby. Back when it was illicit and likely to get us all decommissioned.”

The silence over the comm stretches for an eternity. Anakin is stuck between being actually horrified and collapsing in laughter. The beat is just a bit too close to his own relationship with Padme, the one Obi-Wan and everyone else pretend not to know about.

He can see Fives out of the corner of his eye, Echo officially handed over to Kix and Jesse for examination. His eyebrows are raised to the sky as he listens to their conversation. Anakin shrugs helplessly and Fives' face splits into a huge grin, bringing up a hand to cover his mouth. 

A bark of sudden laughter over the comm breaks the silence. It’s Obi-Wan. Anakin nearly breaks into laughter himself at the sound and Rex is grinning unashamed. He wonders if Cody is smiling too or getting ready to launch a missile in retaliation. 

“No, I knew that before,” Obi-Wan says wryly once she gets herself back together, still chuckling. 

“ _Vod_ ,” and that’s Cody. Anakin doesn’t know him quite well enough to tell from the tone whether he’s furious or amused. He has no tell, reading him is like pulling blood from a stone. “Injured or not, I’m going to kick your _shebs_ from here to Alderaan when you get back, you hear me?”

Rex is smiling, so he must be amused. Kriff if Anakin can tell. “I hear you _ori’vod_ ,” and his tone is full of affection. “I hear you.”

“Skywalker,” Cody says and Anakin fights the urge to snap to attention. Cody isn’t even in the room and he still has this effect. No wonder the 212th is so disciplined. “Do me a favor and blast that smirk off my brothers face.”

“With all due respect, Commander,” he clears his throat. He remembers their last conversation quite clearly. Hard to forget being threatened within an inch of your life by your brother-in-law if you don’t bring his younger brother back. “You tasked me with bringing him back in one piece, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.” 

Rex laughs out loud at that, Obi-Wan too. He wonders if Cody has broken into a smile yet. If the sounds from Obi-Wan are any indication, he’s either smiling with them or plotting murder. 

What the hell, he’s going to assume he’s smiling. Stranger things have happened today. He deserves a win. 

“General?” Anakin turns to see Fives limping towards them. The left side of his face is filthy, covered in blood and dirt, but he’s almost grinning and his eyes are clear. “Sorry to interrupt, but Kix wants to get a look at the Captain.”

“Understood,” he says, turning back to the comm. He’ll see Obi-Wan and Cody soon. There’s no reason that signing off should prompt a lump in his throat. “We’ve got to finish cleaning up here.”

“Of course,” Obi-Wan responds quickly, falling back easily into something resembling professionalism. “I just spoke with Luminara. She and Yoda are inbound to you now.” Anakin can’t help but roll his eyes. That’s definitely not what Kix had in mind when he prescribed rest, but there’s only so much they can limit. Obi-Wan is a force of nature. 

Obi-Wan continues. 

“Master Plo and the 104th picked up Ashoka and the boys on Mandalore. They’re on their way back now,” and Anakin feels a sweep of relief. He’s missed his padawan, sorely. She was ready for the responsibility and more than capable but still. He’d worried, because Maul is a monster himself and Mandalore a fire just waiting to be struck.

Their combined successes today mean one thing. 

It’s finally real. The war is ending. 

With Count Dooku dead and General Grievous in custody, the Separatists are drafting a formal surrender. Mace Windu is overseeing the peace negotiations, since their lead negotiator is still out of commission. He’s not the nuanced presence that Obi-Wan is, but he’s just as meticulous with attention to detail, intimidating where Obi-Wan is persuasive. Anakin guesses they’ll have something concrete before the GAR can even pull out of the Outer Rim. 

Tears sting at the back of his eyes, watching Fives sling an arm around Rex’s shoulder, helping the captain over to their medic. Kix immediately leaves Echo to Jesse, now patched up and looking much more sated, to fret over their CO, zeroing in on his ankle and forcing him to ground, letting Fives sit behind him so the captain can relax against his chest. The familiarity between them, the gentle chatter of his troops, safe, sound, alive, softens the ball of emotion in his chest. 

“We're inbound for Coruscant,” Obi-Wan says and Anakin isn’t surprised. The Sith are dead and the Jedi are coming home. Regardless of the Code, Obi-Wan will always be a Jedi. “We’ll be there soon.” 

The war is over. Padme is waiting for him. Obi-Wan, Cody, Jinn and Ahsoka are on their way. The 501st, the 212th, the 104th, all the clones and the Jedi are ready to come see what the future looks like. 

It’s time to find out. 

**Author's Note:**

> demagolka: someone who commits atrocties, a real-life monster, a war criminal  
> buirs: dad/fathers  
> vod: brother  
> sheds: backside, rear  
> ori'vod: older/big brother  
> osi'yaim: despicable person


End file.
